Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading | Page 8

playing the flute.
She went to the tailor's
To buy him a coat;
But when she came back,


He was riding a goat.
She went to the cobbler's
To buy him some shoes;
But when she
came back,
He was reading the news.
She went to the seamstress
To buy him some linen;
But when she
came back,
The dog was spinning.
She went to the hosiers
To buy him some hose;
But when she came
back,
He was dressed in his clothes.
The dame made a curtsy,
The dog made a bow;
The dame said,
Your servant,
The dog said; Bow, wow.
RUNAWAY BROOK.
"Stop, stop, pretty water!"
Said Mary one day,
To a frolicsome
brook,
That was running away.
"You run on so fast!
I wish you would stay;
My boat and my
flowers
You will carry away.
"But I will run after:
Mother says that I may;
For I would know
where
You are running away."
So Mary ran on;
But I have heard say,
That she never could find

Where the brook ran away.
BED IN SUMMER.
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In
summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or
hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
AT THE SEASIDE
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up,
Till
it could come no more.
THE MEETING OF THE SHIPS.
When o'er the silent seas alone,
For days and nights we've cheerless
gone,
Oh, they who've felt it know how sweet,
Some sunny morn a
sail to meet.
Sparkling at once is ev'ry eye,
"Ship ahoy! ship ahoy!" our joyful cry;

While answering back the sounds we hear,
"Ship ahoy! ship ahoy!
what cheer? what cheer?"
Then sails are back'd, we nearer come,
Kind words are said of friends
and home;
And soon, too soon, we part with pain,
To sail o'er silent
seas again.
PROVERBS AND POPULAR SAYINGS.
A barking dog seldom bites.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush.
A cat may look at a king.
A chip of the old block.
A day
after the fair.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
A fool may ask
more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years.

A fool may make money, but it needs a wise man to spend it. A
friend in need is a friend indeed.
A good garden may have some
weeds.
A good workman is known by his chips.
A hard beginning
makes a good ending.

Three little kittens lost their mittens,
And they began to cry:
"O
mother dear, we very much fear
That we have lost our mittens."
"Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie."

"Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow!
And we can have no pie.
Mee-ow,
mee-ow, mee-ow!"

Once I saw a little bird
Come hop, hop, hop;
So I cried, "Little bird,

Will you stop, stop, stop?"
And was going to the window
To say,
"How do you do?"
But he shook his little tail,
And far away he
flew.

One misty, moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I
chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather;
He began to
compliment,
And I began to grin,--
"How do you do," and "How do
you do,"
And "How do you do" again!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled
peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Rid a cock-horse to Banbury-cross
To see an old lady upon a white
horse,
Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes,
And so she makes
music wherever she goes.

Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had
been stronger,
My song would have been longer.

See, saw, sacradown,
Which is the way to London town?
One foot
up, the other foot down,
And that is the way to London town.

Simple Simon met a pieman
Going to the fair;
Says Simple Simon
to the pieman,
"Let me taste your ware."
Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
"Show me first your penny;"

Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Indeed, I have not any."
Simple Simon went a-fishing
For to catch a whale;
All the water he
had got
Was in his mother's pail.
Simple Simon went to look
If plums grew on a thistle;
He pricked
his fingers very much,
Which made poor Simon whistle.
PRETTY COW.
Thank you? pretty cow, that made
Pleasant milk to soak my bread,

Every day and every night,
Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white.
Do not chew the hemlock rank,
Growing on the weedy bank;
But
the yellow cowslips eat,
That will make it very sweet.
Where the
purple violet grows,
Where the bubbling water flows,
Where the
grass is fresh and fine.
Pretty cow, go there and dine.
THE